'I bloody am an' all.' He grinned.
Tanner returned to the truck, brought it forward, then ordered his men to get out and start clearing. Less than ten minutes later, the road was ready, and with the men standing and watching, Tanner began to inch forward. A scrape of metal as the offside wing ground against the bank. Tanner could feel the resistance of the rock. 'Sorry, Mr Sulheim,' he said to himself, then pressed his foot on the throttle. A painful screech of metal, and the truck lurched forward. A moment later, it was safely on the other side.
'Quick! Vite!' shouted Chevannes. The men got back into the truck, Chevannes rejoined Tanner and Anna in the cab and they set off once more. Tanner looked at his watch again: a little over twenty minutes from the start of the attack. A glance at the map, open once more on Chevannes' lap. He wondered how long it would take the Stuka crews to return to their base and warn the ground troops of their position. With the road blocked behind them, he guessed the enemy would be coming from the Gudbrandsdal valley, joining the road at Vinstra. It was a good distance to Vinstra from Tretten, but who was to say whether the troops would come from Tretten or further north up the valley? It was impossible to know. He wiped a hand across his brow. Really, he thought, they might meet Germans at any moment. Perhaps Chevannes had been right, after all. Perhaps they should have waited. No, he told himself. We need to make ground while we can.
'Are you all right, Sergeant?' asked Anna.
'Yes - thank you, Miss.' Then he said to Chevannes,
'Sir, we need to watch the road ahead like hawks.'
'Yes, thank you, Sergeant, but all I can see at the moment is the end of the lake,' said Chevannes, 'so at present there is little I can do.'
'In a couple of kilometres, the road climbs again,' said Anna. 'It follows the lip of the mountain plateau. You can see a long way from up there.'
'What about snow?'
'There will be snow on the mountains but the road will be clear by now. I'm certain of that. There are quite a few farms along it - they will make sure the road can be used.'
'Good,' said Tanner, then took his German binoculars from round his neck and passed them to Anna. 'Here,' he said. 'Do me a favour, will you? Keep a dekko with these.'
'A what, Sergeant?'
Tanner smiled. 'Sorry, Miss. Soldier slang. It means, could you keep a sharp lookout?'
'Of course.' She returned the smile, and Tanner was pleased to see irritation on Chevannes' face.
A mile, then two. Suddenly the end of the lake reappeared and the climb began. Tanner dropped down a gear, the Morris grinding sluggishly forward. The road was winding, too, so their forward view was never more than a hundred yards at most. Tanner felt a heaviness in his stomach. He tapped his fingers on the steering- wheel, bounced up and down in his seat again, then eventually took out his last remaining packet of German cigarettes, offered one to Chevannes and Anna - who both declined - then fumbled for his matches. The effort of getting at them from under his jerkin, then delving into the right-hand breast pocket on his battle blouse caused him to drive over a pothole and briefly lose control of the wheel.
'Concentrate, Sergeant,' snapped Chevannes. 'We haven't come this far just for you to drive us off the road.'
Tanner ignored him, and as he clutched the steering- wheel, matches now in one hand, Anna said, 'Would you like me to light it for you?'
'Thanks, Miss,' said Tanner, and passed her both matches and cigarette. Having lit it, she carefully placed the cigarette between his lips.
'Thanks,' said Tanner again, inhaling deeply.
'Don't forget to keep watching the road ahead, Anna,' said Chevannes.
'No, of course - sorry,' she said, hastily bringing the binoculars back to her eyes. Tanner smiled to himself - as if they'd be any use on this winding stretch of road. He opened the window and the smoke dissolved through the narrow gap. It felt cooler already, and Tanner felt a shiver run down his back. Christ! Any moment, just round this corner ... But then he turned and the road was still empty. He felt a momentary flutter of relief.
'We're nearly there,' said Anna, as they drove round a sharp hairpin. Beneath them, away to their right, there was a deep ravine, dark, forbidding and densely covered with thick forest, but as they crested the brow the road levelled at last. To the left, they saw the snow-covered mountain plateau, to their right the ravine and in front, the long, straight road that hugged the lip for some fifteen miles, almost all the way to Vinstra. 'How far can you see now?' Tanner asked Anna.
'Three or four kilometres at least. It's empty.'
Patches of thin mud-brown snow covered the road, but its surface was clear enough for Tanner to push down hard on the throttle and build up speed. 'See anything at the back?' Tanner yelled.
'Nothing,' came the muffled reply.
Where were they? Tanner wondered. He drummed his fingers, felt the pistol at his hip; his trusted Enfield was wedged between his seat and the door.
Another two miles, and the road veered to the left, round a subsidiary valley to the main ravine, then curved back and straightened once more. As Anna had told them, there were a number of farms along this high mountain route, but not a soul stirred. The road was empty - not a cart, person or animal. Tanner realized he had barely even seen a bird. The place seemed lifeless; it was almost impossible to think a war could be going on. Tanner strained his eyes. One of the eyelids flickered. Fatigue was getting the better of him.
A glint in the distance snapped him out of his reverie. 'There!' he said. 'What was that?'
Both Chevannes and Anna had their binoculars trained. Another glint. 'There it was again!' said Tanner.
'It's them,' said Chevannes. 'A convoy of four trucks.'
Tanner's heart was drumming in his chest, his tiredness forgotten. 'How far?'
'Seven kilometres, maybe eight.'
'What are we going to do?' asked Anna, fear in her voice.
'Stop and head into the mountains,' said Chevannes.
'Here?' said Tanner. 'Where? There's no cover at all.' He glanced at the map. 'Where are we? What's this valley here?' With half an eye on the map, he pointed to a dogleg in the road.
'It's not far,' said Anna. 'Look, the road turns just ahead.'
'Good. Another valley to skirt round, then we'll be out of view. Ten to one it'll be wooded. We can ditch the truck there and take cover in the trees.'
To his relief, as they turned the corner and lost sight of the enemy, Tanner saw that the landscape was covered with dense forest. To their right a mountain stream was tumbling and cascading down to the ravine. At the corner of the dog-leg, the road crossed the stream and it was here that Tanner stopped.
'Everyone out! Quick!' shouted Chevannes.
Tanner hurried to the back of the truck and grabbed his pack, slinging it on to his shoulders, his mind whirling. 'Five miles at twenty miles an hour,' he mumbled, 'take away five. Ten minutes.' He looked at his watch. Nearly half past ten. Ten minutes to get Sandvold and Anna away and come up with a plan to delay the Germans. Think, man, think.
Chevannes was already urging the others to head into the trees. 'Come on!' he shouted. 'Quickly! Get moving!'
'Sir, wait!' Tanner called out. He ran up to him. 'Sir, if you and your men take the professor and Miss Rostad, my men and I will try to hold them off for a while.'
Chevannes paused then said, 'Very well.'
'Miss - Anna,' said Tanner. 'Where will you head for?'
'Here,' she told him. Her finger was shaking as she pointed on the map. 'Skjedalen. There are several mountain seters where we can shelter.' She swallowed, her eyes searching Tanner's face for reassurance. 'There are two peaks above us over to the right of where we are now - the Olasfjellet and the Silikampan. Keep those on your right and head almost due north.'
'All right,' he said. 'Now go. Wait for us there.'
Wide-eyed, frightened, she turned and ran.
'Lads, quick,' he said, calling his men to him. 'We need to halt these Jerry bastards. There are four trucks, and by my reckoning that's around seventy men.' The men's faces were ashen. 'Stan, the time has come for us to
